The present invention relates generally to agricultural planters and seeders that form a furrow in the ground for the placement of seeds therein, and more particularly, to a device for controlling the placement of a seed when the seed is placed in the furrow.
Agricultural planting machines are manufactured in different forms, one of which is a device commonly referred to as an air seeder. The air seeder carries seed, fertilizer and possibly other chemicals in a tank that opens into a pneumatic conveyance mechanism that transports the seed and perhaps fertilizer to a planting apparatus, one of which can be commonly referred to as a disc opener. The pneumatic conveyance mechanism includes a fan that creates a flow of air at such a velocity that the seeds and/or fertilizer dropped into the air stream becomes airborne and is conveyed to the disc opener. Metering mechanisms restrain the flow of seed and fertilizer into the pneumatic conveyance mechanism to control the rate of application of seed and fertilizer to the ground.
Disc openers are designed to move through the soil and place product such as seed, fertilizer, or other micro nutrients into the ground while creating as little disturbance as possible to the surrounding environment. To accomplish this goal, the disc usually opens a small trench or furrow into the ground in which the product is placed. The pneumatic conveyance mechanism conveys the product from the central tank to the small trench. Depending on the settings made for the variably operable pneumatic conveyance mechanism, this air velocity may make precise placement of the seed difficult. Seed placement is made even more difficult by the nature of the pneumatic conveyance mechanism which are often difficult to set for any particular ground condition. As a result, operators often set the air velocities at a greater rate than is optimally necessary. Such seed velocities at the disc opener can result in significant difficulties in getting the product properly placed at the bottom of the trench or furrow due to product bounce.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,806, granted to John Deere and Company on Aug. 2, 1988, is directed to a flexible seed flap that is positioned at the top of the trench to retrain movement of the product being conveyed into the trench by the product conveyance mechanism. This seed flap, however, is not long enough to help with the placement of seed at the bottom of the trench. As a result, such devices do not solve the problem of keeping the seed in the bottom of the trench or furrow.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,638, issued to J and K Keeton Enterprises, Inc. on Oct. 7, 1997, is directed to an improvement to the seed flap disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,806. Such seed flaps are ineffective in muddy conditions and suffer from a deficit in the ability to easily and quickly remove or replace the seed flap when ground conditions change. Further, the seed flap is rigidly mounted and has a long profile, thus making the seed flap lose performance when the implement is turning. Flexi-Coil Ltd, the assignee of the instant application, commercially introduced a seed flap at the end of 1999 that provided good results in both wet and dry soil conditions, but restricted air flow associated with large application rates of fertilizer.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a seed flap that can be effective in both wet (e.g., muddy conditions) and dry soil conditions and provide convenient accessibility for moving the seed flap when the seed flap is not required without restricting air flow rates, particularly the air flow rates associated with large fertilizer application rates.
Accordingly, an important object of the present invention is to provide a seed flap device to enhance seed and fertilizer placement for air seeder disc openers.
It is another object of this invention to provide a non-flexible seed flap that will ride at the bottom of the trench or furrow formed by the disc opener to prevent product bounce from high velocity seeds exiting the seed tube.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a seed flap that can be easily moved from a lowered operative position to a raised inoperative position.
It is a feature of this invention to provide an apparatus that establishes a positive force to seat the seed delivered into the bottom of the furrow created by the disc opener.
It is an advantage of this invention that the seed can be firmly placed into the furrow created by the disc opener.
It is another advantage of this invention that seed firming can be accomplished with a less costly device than a firming wheel which is commonly used with air seeder disc openers.
It is another feature of this invention that the non-flexible seed flap can be coupled to a spring or a torsion device to create a positive pressure for seed firming in the trench or furrow.
It is another feature of this invention that a double pivot mechanism is provided for a non-flexible seed flap.
It is still another advantage of this invention that the seed flap could be mounted to the disc opener by a multi-axis pivot apparatus to simplify the mounting of the seed flap.
It is still another feature of this invention that the pivotally mounted seed flap provides enhanced following of the furrow bottom while the disc toolbar is turning in the field.
It is a yet another advantage of this invention that the pivotally mounted seed flap is adaptable to a dual-axis disc opener.
It is another feature of this invention that a transport stop is provided so that the seed flap will not drag during transport.
It is yet another feature of this invention that a clip can be provided to hold the seed flap in a raised inoperative position which can be desirable in certain ground conditions where the use of the seed flap is undesirable.
It is yet another feature of this invention that the seed flap can be coated with friction lowering compounds.
These and other objects, features, and advantages are accomplished according to the present invention by providing a seed flap for a disc opener associated with an air seeder operable to place seed and fertilizer into a furrow formed in the ground by the disc opener. The seed flap is formed from a non-flexible material, such as an abrasion resistant steel, and pivotally mounted to the seed tube to permit the seed flap to trail behind the seed tube and control the placement of seeds and/or fertilizer discharged from the seed tube. The pivotal mounting of the seed flap will provide movement of the seed flap relative to the seed tube to permit the seed flap to better follow the bottom of the furrow created by the disc opener. This simplifies furrow alignment problems and helps the seed flap follow the furrow while the disc opener is moving through a turn. In an alternative embodiment, a spring mechanism operably coupled to the seed flap will provide a positive force for firming the placement of the seed into the soil. A retention device, such as a clip, will be operable to hold the seed flap in an elevated, inoperable position as desired by the operator.